“It was pretty electric because the Civic Centre was a small building.
“You could visibly sense the excitement of NHL hockey back in Ottawa. Certainly as players we really felt it, so it was pretty neat.
“All of us also knew that we were in for a very tough year, but I don’t think any of us realized how difficult it was going to be until we were in it.
“That first game was a bit of a reprieve for us. It just felt nice to start off the season with a victory. I remember guys getting changed after the game and saying, ‘Hey, maybe we can win 20 this year.’
“But reality set in after that game. We got just nine more wins spread over how many months? Seven? It was just so hard because we didn’t have the talent. And for the guys who came from good, competitive teams, it was so frustrating.
“We might be tied with a team 2-2 after two periods and still in the game, but we just didn’t have the talent to take advantage of things like power plays, while other teams could just turn it on and pull away. We lost a lot of games like that.”

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